FRIDAY 31st
1 John 5:16-19
‘If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.’
Throughout this epistle John has emphasized fellowship, love and the need to abide in God, the whole letter is all about how our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ should have an effect upon our relationships with each other in the body of Christ. John has written the epistle because he cares for those who were originally going to read it, they were as we have seen ‘his beloved’.
In our verses today there is another expression of the concern that we should have for each other, and that is to look out for our brother or sister and if we can see that they are committing a sin, to ask God on his or her behalf to give him or her life. What does John mean? These verses are a little difficult to follow. Well to ask God means we must pray for that brother or sister, and ask that by his Spirit God will bring the erring brother or sister to a place of realising there sin and to repentance. John makes it clear that there is sin that leads to death, that is unrepentant sin, while there is also sin that does not lead to death.
This second category is where the believer fits in, for not one of us has reached a place of sinless perfection, we all sin, we all make mistakes, but the sin we commit is dealt with as we continually do as John encourages us in his opening chapter, ‘to confess our sin’ knowing that Jesus is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In turn just as we would pray this prayer for ourselves, we can ask God to cause by his Spirit our brother or sister that may sin to also come to the place of confessing the sin and to know what it is to be cleansed.
In other words we don’t go about pointing a finger at one another, rather we have such a concern for the souls of our brothers and sisters that we pray for one another that we will be kept from deliberately or continual sinning and eventually falling as we live in this fallen world.
Thank God that verse 19 assures us that as the children of God there is a protection upon us, whatever else we might consider as that protection, such as the power of the Holy Spirit, we know that we have upon us the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is his blood that as cleansed us and which gives us life.
It’s your blood that cleanses me
It’s your blood that gives me life
It’s your blood that took my place
In redeeming sacrifice, and washes me,
Whiter than the snow, than the snow
My Jesus, God’s precious sacrifice.